Ebb and Flow
---- It was another fine spring morning when Scorpius, one of the many members of the ever growing guild Koma Inu, was heading to the guild to check of there was any news or requests for him. As he entered the guild hall there was a slight buzz between members of excitement. Scorpius pondered for the meaning but shrugged it off as he went over to the main message board. Not much had changed on the board from the last time he checked other than a small flyer informing everyone that a new member had joined. He inspected the flyer closer and noticed that Gwen, the new wizard, was also a user of Water Magic. "I haven't met another water mage in a long while. I wonder what how strong she is," Scorpius said to himself. He began to search through the guild, going up and down all the different levels searching for Gwen with the flyer in his hand. He searched in all the rooms, aside from the girl's dormitories, and all of the training rooms as well. He was about to give up when he checked out back of the guild where a garden had been planted. Immediately, Scorpius could tell the woman standing in front of him was the new member. He walked over to her quite abruptly, and without warning, he said: "I challenge you, Gwen Dallesus... wait I said that wrong, Da-Da-Daelaeus?" He felt a bit embarrassed about his flub but stood his ground for his challenge. Gwen had only recently joined, after being persuaded by Izar. For the second consecutive day, she was watering the plants in Nolan's garden, however, this time, unlike last, she was not been interrupted by a confused, passionate young man who seemed ready to bite her head off if she hurt his plants. She stood with one finger raised as drops of water spilled over the garden beds at a quick gentle pace. At the sound of Scorpius' voice, Gwen's attention faltered and the water stopped. Her brows were raised, lips pursed as he challenged her. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. My name is Gwen Daelaeus," She said outstretching her hand, a polite smile on her face, "Perhaps before you challenge me, you could share your name." Scorpius dropped his hand, which he had pointing at Gwen for the challenge. "Oh yeah, right..." Scorpius said before taking a breath. "My name is Scorpius Dakukawa. I am a water mage here at Koma Inu. I want to challenge you to a sparring match to see what you, a fellow water mage, is made of," He said with a sincere smile. He shifted in his place before continuing, "Sorry for my abrupt request, I get excited easily." Scorpius started to feel uneasy as he began to realize his actions could be seen as rude. "It's fine," Gwen assured, "I've seen far more cruel piggish men in my days than you." She thought about his offer for a moment. She hadn't fought in quite some time, sans her spar a few days ago with Izar. Her wounds were healed, so there was no reason not to accept his offer. "I accept," Gwen replied, a spark of excitement held in her eyes, "Though I should warn you, you are being somewhat naive as you know nothing about me." Nonetheless, she continued, "We should probably go farther away from Nolan's garden, I'm afraid he could have a heart attack if any harm came to it." She began to lead him away, farther into the open grounds before stopping, assuming what could only be her starting position for the spar. Legs even with her shoulder, back straight and hands at either side. "Whenever you are ready, we can begin." Scorpius felt offended by the comparison to the less gentlemanly of his male counterparts but shrugged it off as Gwen accepted his challenge. "Yeah, we should move away from the garden. I remember the last time it was disturbed... it wasn't a fun day at the guild." Scorpius chuckled as he followed Gwen out past the garden. He got into his own fighting stance after limbering up his muscles for a moment. "It is true that I do not know anything about you or your fighting style, but the quickest way is usually a mock battle such as this," Scorpius said before he began. "Let's see how fast you can move. Water Make: Spikes!" Scorpius raised his hands, stepped forward, and pushed out towards Gwen as spikes of water 2 feet tall erupted from the ground, going from Scorpius to under where Gwen is standing. Gwen didn't move, blinking once as the spikes approached her. She waited until they were almost a foot away before she crouched, outstretching her hands and moving them from left to right, shifting her torso in accordance with the motion. Out of thin air, appeared a sweeping wave as Gwen manipulated the water with Suisei, her element formed from the molecules in the air. The wave crashed in front of her, colliding with the spikes and absorbing them into the wave. Gwen's foot shifted backward and her arms moved into a small circle as the water whirled around the right side of her body, behind her, until it burst out on her left, in sync with a forward strike with her left arm. The water rushed forward through the air at Scorpius, a relatively simple, yet powerful attack with enough force to knock him backward. Her attack was precise, perfectly embodying one of the principles of water- its flow. Scorpius grinned wickedly as he purposefully placed his face in the way of the water. He opened his mouth as the water hit swallowing it whole, the force pushing Scorpius back an inch as he underestimated its force at first. Scorpius gulped and wiped his mouth before saying, "Phew, that was refreshing. Thanks for the drink." He quickly reset his feet as he prepared his next attack. "Water Devil's Rage!" He said after taking a big breath, causing a high-pressure beam of water to fire from Scorpius's mouth towards Gwen's feet. As the spell ended, Scorpius stood straight up and asked, "What do you think of that?" Gwen couldn't say she was too surprised at the reveal of his status as a Devil Slayer. There had been something... darker about his magical presence from the get go. Once again she raised her hand, extending it straight as the miasma of tainted water approached her, breaking into two streams a mere inch away from her palm, flowing around her body as she exerted control over their shared element. Her features were soft, lips upturned slightly in a smile. "It's a bit.... Weak." She admitted, with a giggle. Her counterattack was swift, as three magic seals formed around Scorpius, blocking him inside as Gwen triggered an application of Water Magic she had invented herself: Aquatic Magic Seal Arts. A torrent of water shot out of each seal, forming around Scorpius as a spirally destructive whirlpool with immense rotary force to batter him around like a fish caught in a typhoon as it closed in. She was well aware of the fact that he could consume water. It was that fact that she was counting on. Scorpius was caught in the whirlpool for a moment, being battered on all sides before he dropped himself down to a knee, his palm on the ground as he said, "Water Spout," and water erupted from below him to push him up and out of the seal's area, their flow of water amplifying the speed at which he ascended. As soon as he was out Scorpius jumped off of the spout to the side of the seals, and he turned his attention to her. He snapped his fingers and pointed at Gwen before saying, "I'll show you weak." The spout instantly stopped rotating and came in a stream towards Scorpius' pointed hand, firing past in separate cannon balls, all on a different trajectory towards Gwen. "So why did you decide to join Koma Inu anyways? Someone with your control of water could have joined anyone's guild with open arms," Scorpius said as the cannon balls kept firing. Gwen waved her hand in front of her, creating a large, curved in front of her, blocking the cannon bottles as they rattled against her defense. "I'm a childhood friend of Izar's." She replied, knowing that if he knew of Izar's background it would be quite a shock to him. After his assault had ceased, Gwen's barrier broke into thin crescents of water as she initiated the Fish Scales spell with over 30 blade-like crescents of water flung themselves at Scorpius' body at varying heights and positions for a full body assault. Scorpius, after the revelation of being Izar's childhood friend, was quite surprised. "Then that would make you...4, 500 years old at least." He said before throwing up a dome of water around himself to try and diffuse the attack. unfortunately, one of the crescents cut through one of the thinner parts of the dome and scraped Scorpius' bicep. He grimaced at his foolish mistake and decided to get more serious about this spar. He controlled the dome and split it into a multitude of entities, forming them into throwing daggers that then went and fired towards Gwen as Scorpius said, "You look good for your age." She raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised Izar has told so many about his history," She raised an arm, stopping his daggers in their tracks, "if you know my age... Then perhaps you know that you are severely out of depth in this fight." She finished, the blades spinning back to face Scorpius before launching them back at an even higher velocity. Scorpius brought his two fists together, pulled them apart quickly to conjure his sword from which quickly turned to steel. He used the sword to deflect and cut down the daggers as they raced towards him. "I had to pull it out of him over time. I like to know the background of my guildmates. Helps me understand where they come from as a person." Scorpius said shortly as he ducked out of the way of the final dagger. He stood there with his sword in one hand and wiped sweat from his brow with the other. "Whew, you are good. Makes sense from the years of practice you have." Scorpius relaxed his stance for a moment as he continued to talk, "So... did you take part of any large events in the past few centuries?" At this point Scorpius plunged the tip of his sword into the ground, while he leaned against it with a look of intrigue on his face as he waited for Gwen's response. She quickly closed the gap between them with the Reduced Earth technique, appearing at his side. "Do you not think it is uncouth to ask me of my past so soon?" She dropped suddenly, palms on the ground and leg out, a sweeping kick aimed to knock Scorpius off her feet before she returned to neutral position, followed by two turns backward to create space between them. Scorpius had blinked as Gwen suddenly appeared in front of him. He fell on his back with a ''thump ''from the sweeping kick. He was able to push himself up with his hands behind him to see Gwen return to close to her previous position. He laughed aloud at himself for a moment before grabbing his sword, which had fallen to his side, and standing back up. "Forgive me for being so abrupt. For your amount of mastery over the water element, I'd bet you'd make quite a splash within history," Scorpius said with a smile. He went into a neutral position as well, waiting for Gwen next move. "As you said I may be out of my depth here, so why not show me how far removed I am?" Scorpius taunted, wanting to see just how powerful Gwen is now that they had some time to warm up. Gen frowned momentarily, slightly displeased with his nature. "There's no reason to show how far I can go unless it is necessary. It would be wasteful." She continued to step away from him, creating more space between them, "That being said, it's been a while since I've fought. Forgive me if I rough you up too badly." Punctuating her point, Gwen lifted her palm. The earth shuddered in response, a high-pressure geyser of groundwater shooting out of the ground underneath Scorpius. "Already forgiven!" Scorpius said as the geyser at his feet blasted him into the air. Scorpius fumbled in the air a bit to gain his bearings before wings of water sprouted from between his shoulder blades. He looked down at Gwen, realizing that he may have overstepped a bit. "I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds at all here, I just excite easily," He said before focusing on a new spell. He sat hovering in the air and whistled between his fingers as four of Scylla's heads, all made of water, popped out of the ground around Gwen, growling and snapping towards her. "How do you like my pet?" Scorpius asked. A shortsword formed in Gwen's right hand. She sliced through the heads in one clean spin, absorbing the water from their bodies into her weapon until the previously small sword turned into a massive claymore. "Honestly they're not my fancy." She replied, releasing the water from her hands and forming a lance in the air in front of her. She thrust it upward towards him, where it split off into eight smaller lances, targeting his whole body. "No! Scylla," Scorpius cried as he crossed his arms forming a bubble like a shield around most of his body to deflect and absorb the water lances. He was pushed up into the air as the shield was hit. Scorpius gritted his teeth as he acted on instinct and threw his hand forward towards Gwen, turning the bubble shield into a spinning blade that was sent flying towards Gwen's position as he took three steel daggers from their case, and threw them towards Gwen as well in a mid-air spin to increase their velocity. Gwen copied his defense, forming a spherical version of the Blue Barrier spell- the pressurized dome standing strong against the water-blade and the daggers as the steel ricochet off. She was surprised by his reaction- acting so emotional over the loss of a water-made beast, with no whims of its own. Gwen exhaled, the barrier dissipating as the air hung thick with newfound humidity as fog began to form. Scorpius came to a halt mid-air to calm himself. He took a deep breath before he floated down to the ground 10 feet in from of Gwen with the fog hanging around the two mages. Scorpius enwrapped his hands and forearms with toxic water, allowing them to form into gauntlets with spikes on the knuckles. Scorpius peered forward, but knowing how fog can distort your view, focused on his hearing to pinpoint any movement Gwen does. "How about some hand to hand combat?" Scorpius asked as he stood ready in a balanced stance.